The UK's methods to maintain a sustainable research and development by themselves

The UK's international research

Relationships with the United States

Relationships with Europe and with NATO

The UK aerospace industry: Towards European co-operation

Conclusion

Towards Post Cold War conflicts, the English army became the heir of a strong strategic culture. Indeed, the geo-politic and military story of England has been made mainly by maritime army power, in order to avoid any insurrections from other countries. However, in today's absence of any direct threats towards England and in a world evolution of conflicts, it is important for England like other any European countries to develop alliances in order to guarantee a world security. Since the end of the Post War, the world has known new localized conflicts for a part, with the example of the ?Balkanization? of the conflicts, and the apparition of new threats with the notion of terrorism (9/11). The last White Papers edited by the English Ministry of Defense dealt with Defense issues, and emphasized on the way that the English army must change its overall vision of its Defense Industrial Strategy showing their will to adapt their army in the new international strategic context.

[...] Moreover, in order to meet its proper needs in term of Research and Development Investment, the Ministry of Industry has developed several autonomous concepts. Indeed, thanks to the Technology strategy, Mod is consequently moving away from a single supplier of research, seeking to develop partnerships between Private and Public sector. Indeed, as we have seen before, thanks to PFI and to the ?Defense Diversification agency?, investments can be dividing between these two sectors and consequently being even less heavy for the government. [...]

[...] Consequently, one of the main motives of the UK's army structure is to provide more flexibility within its army by not only diminishing the size of the army, but also to bring in better organization, in small and more relevant units which are ready to act at any time. If United Kingdom has already started its move towards a European Defense policy, we can wonder what will be the advantages and disadvantages for UK to extend its co-operation in the arms procurement, and more precisely concerning the Research and development. [...]

[...] Buy seems to be really cheaper, however, the Mod keep in mind that such policy will lead to a loss of employments and consequently capital formation, but also a loss of technical capability for UK to produce their own Defense system. Consequently, by being an intermediary, working by joint-ventures, notably within Europe, looks to be the greater solution. The graph below shows the aerospace industry operating margins in US, Europe and UK. It shows that if UK has been performing for a long time according to the margin's criteria, the profitability of UK aerospace is now more and more a source of concern. [...]